Mala and Ronak are adults now. They've married, begun their own families and moved away from the suffocating world of their first generation immigrant parents. But when they learn their mother has only months to live, the focus of their world returns to her home. Having shown little interest in the Indian cuisine they eat at every gathering, Mala decides to master the recipes her mother learned at her own mother's knee. And as they cook together, mother and daughter begin to confront the great divisions of their lives, and finally heal their fractured relationship. But when Ronak comes up with a plan to memorialise his mother, the hard-won peace between them is tested to its limits. Written with tenderness and wry compassion, Amit Majmudar has captured anew the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations.
"This heartbreakingly lovely novel evocatively captures the often contentious but ultimately loving essence of a cross-generational Indian American family. - Majmudar, author of the highly regarded Partitions, displays an understated flair for imagery and language, communicating the significance of the ties that bind without ever resorting to mawkish sentimentality. Delectable and convincing literary fiction that subtly shines the spotlight on some basic universal truths." Booklist - Booklist
"Majmudar's magnificent fiction debut, Partitions, investigated the wrenching moral dilemmas posed by the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947; here, he trains the same unsparing yet compassionate eye on a contemporary family in the Midwest... 'This is not a book about dying,' the narrator informs us. 'This is a book about life.' Indeed it is, and not life airbrushed by sentimentality, but life as it is actually experienced by flawed hman beings - perfectly rendered by their gifted author. Beautifully written and deeply moving." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A page-turner to tempt you - A sweet-and-spicy story of parenting across generational and cultural gaps." - Good Housekeeping
"A moving story of motherhood across cultural divides... Powerful in its simplicity and honesty, The Abundance reminds us of the way our roots inevitably shape our adult selves." - Publishers Weekly
""A wonder of lyrical and transparent writing... Its complexity keeps The Abundance feeling so fresh and human: We hurt even when we mean to heal." Cleveland Plain Dealer "Written with grace, compassion, and restraint." - Neel Mukherjee, author of A Life Apart
